The second week

The second week of term has flown by unbelievably quickly, despite the fact that I wasn't especially busy as, apart from Monday's theory class, there were no classes scheduled due to the Studio 2 shoots.

Monday's theory class on Stanislavski was quite interesting, although it wasn't very specific to Stanislavski. Milton made a guest appearance, and so most of the time was spent discussing Milton's ideas about acting (and some class members' as well), rather than Stanislavski's. As I expected, keeping up with the work for the Monday class is proving difficult for me; I didn't finish the reading in time for the class, and I have been procrastinating all week over writing my theatre journal entry. I will definitely do it tonight though, as if I do not it will probably get left until the end of term, the night before the journal is due. I need to get into good habits, and that means getting on top of this journal NOW.

Apart from a visit to Gayle about the studio 2 costumes, Tuesday was unproductive, however Wednesday saw me finally beginning the transcribing of my Cannabus documentary. Sai Yin set up the tape player in the year 1 editing suite, and I was finally able to review the footage that I shot so many months ago. Between both Wednesday and Friday's transcribing sessions I have done an hour and thirty-four minutes worth of footage so far, so there is still a lot more to go. There was a lot of rubbish on the tapes - but you expect that with documentary - however there was enough good stuff as well that I think we have done very well. Watching the footage, much of which was too shakey or too dark or bright, makes me appreciate just how difficult documentary camera work is. The camera student who helped me with the footage I have looked at so far is excellent in my opinion, however she clearly struggled to make the camera respond quickly enough to events as they took place.

Thursday was an interesting day, as this was the day when I had a rehearsal with my actors for studio 2. I had decided to take them into the city to rehearse in actual elevators so that they could get a feel for how the unique environment of the elevator impacts on people's behaviour, and so that they could rehearse the scene in front of the general public and hopefully convince them of the reality of the situation, rather than revealing themselves as actors. I felt that this was important, as I am finding that they frequently over-act. I was hoping this would encourage them to pull it back a lot.

The day didn't start off too well, as we weren't able to leave on time. Felix had to give a presentation at 1 o'clock - not that he had thought to tell me this himself, despite knowing for more than 24 hours in advance. So of course I turned up at 12, ready to go, and Ashton and Sarah told me about Felix's presentation. I was so annoyed that he hadn't told me in advance, and that he was nowhere to be seen! Nevertheless, we agreed to meet and leave after the presentation; about twenty past one. Once the presentation was over, however, Felix took out his lunch and sat on a bench, refusing to leave with us until after he had had his lunch and a break. What was he doing at lunch time if not eating his lunch?! Since we had already been delayed by almost an hour and a half we asked him to please come with us and eat in the car on the way, but he would not budge. Meanwhile, Ashton and Sarah stood by dressed in clothes that they felt that their character might wear, as they had been asked to do, while Felix wore his normal clothes.

Eventually we drove into town and set about pursuing elevators to rehearse in. Typically, Felix was skeptical and reluctant about the idea, while the other two were happy to discuss challenges and solutions. Similarly, Ashton and Sarah knew their lines - Felix did not. If I had been in the position to do so, I would have kicked Felix out of the scene instantly for his self-indulgent behaviour. Unfortunately though we were not in control of our own casting on this project.

Anyway, eventually we were able to rehearse in elevators. There plenty of mishaps involving people getting stuck on floors they were not supposed to be on, or missing the elevator altogether, however I still feel all in all that the day was quite productive. For one thing, they were certainly able to feel the effects of the environment. For another, they succeeded in the challenge of maintaining their focus despite various things being thrown into the middle of their scene. There was also a small confrontation, when Felix said a line and someone else in the lift thought he was speaking to them and got antsy, so they were able to feel the intensity of what having a confrontation in that tiny little box really feels like. They were also able to observe little details such as the fact that they automatically leaned against the walls of lift. Furthermore, it was all very good fun. The rehearsal wasn't as long as I would have liked, but a good experience for all of us. If I were to do a similar exercise again the future, I would probably do it at a later stage of rehearsal though, when the actors know the text more instinctively.

Friday was quite interesting as we had the first read-through of the 'New York' script. In order to give us more practise working with actors, Milton is helping those of us (directing students) who are interested to put on a play called 'New York'. It is a series of duologues between a psychiatrist and number of people who are traumatised by the events of September 11th. Reading the play on Friday I felt that it was very interesting on the page, but not too sure that it would be very engaging for an audience on the stage because it was so static and reflective; the action was all in the past tense. Nevertheless, I think it will be a very good experience for me as far as working with actors to achieve a performance goes. The read-through with the actors themselves was quite interesting. Some had obviously already done quite a bit of work on their characters beforehand, while some clearly had not. There were also some stand-out American accents around the table, and some very poor ones too. I'm not sure how many scenes we are doing each, but I have listed my preferences and will send them to Milton soon. Fingers crossed that I get good scenes and great actors!

Another thing that I did on Friday was observing Romain's studio shoot. I was there for the first shot of the day, and popped in a couple of times afterwards too. The set looked great, although inappropriate to the script in my opinion. I was also unsure about Sarah's costume as she closely resembled a nurse, without clearly being one. The thing I was most interested in though was the actinng. It was quite difficult not to whisper in Romain's ear all the things I would have told the actors if I had been him. As I watched them I felt that the actors knew what was going on in the scene on paper but were not actually applying that to how they acted. They were acting the lines too much, and not the subtext and certainly not the circumstances. They were also acting too hard - over-pronouncing their Ts etc. In the end I did end up talking to Romain about one aspect of the performance as he took a quick bathroom break, and he incorporated my suggestion into the scene. When I saw it played, however, it still appeared not to be fully understood. So frustrating! I hope I can get more out of my actors, although it will be no small challenge.